Billing statement customer acquisition system

ABSTRACT

Some described embodiments provide for selecting (e.g., by a server computer from a plurality of transaction records), a transaction record associated with a financial account of an account holder. In one example, the transaction record includes an indication of an amount due, by the account holder, for a previous purchase completed by the account holder with a first merchant. Some embodiments provide further for generating a billing statement for the account holder, the billing statement including an indication of the amount due by the account holder for the previous completed purchase and an indication of an acquisition offer, in which the acquisition offer comprises a promise from a second merchant to pay at least a portion of the amount due by the account holder, and transmitting the billing statement to the account holder.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.13/113,587 filed May 23, 2011 now U.S. Pat. No. 8,458,020 and entitledBILLING STATEMENT CUSTOMER ACQUISITION SYSTEM; which is a continuationof U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/423,299 filed Jun. 9, 2006,entitled BILLING STATEMENT CUSTOMER ACQUISITION SYSTEM, and nowabandoned; which is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.11/084,431 filed Mar. 18, 2005, entitled BILLING STATEMENT CUSTOMERACQUISITION SYSTEM, and now abandoned; which is a continuation of U.S.patent application Ser. No. 09/100,684 filed Jun. 19, 1998, issued asU.S. Pat. No. 6,898,570 on May 24, 2005, and entitled BILLING STATEMENTCUSTOMER ACQUISITION SYSTEM; which is a continuation-in-part of U.S.patent application Ser. No. 08/982,149 filed Dec. 1, 1997, issued asU.S. Pat. No. 6,196,458 on Mar. 6, 2001, and entitled METHOD ANDAPPARATUS FOR PRINTING A BILLING STATEMENT TO PROVIDE SUPPLEMENTARYPRODUCT SALES. Each of the above applications is incorporated byreference herein in their entirety.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates generally to customer acquisition systemsand, more particularly, to a method and apparatus for facilitatingacquisition of new customers using billing statements.

BACKGROUND

The service economy has grown substantially in recent years. In the longdistance telephone market, for example, over two hundred million (200million) long distance calls are placed, on average, each day in theUnited States alone. For many such service-based businesses, fixed costsare high and variable costs are low, resulting in high profit marginsfor incremental customers (each additional customer after a thresholdnumber of customers that are required to pay for fixed cost). Thus, itis clear why long distance carriers and other service providers are soaggressive in their pursuit of new accounts.

In the long distance telephone market, for example, the incrementalprofits achieved from completing each additional call in excess of athreshold number of calls has been estimated to be as high as ninetyeight percent (98%). Accordingly, service providers are constantlysearching for new techniques and promotions to acquire new accounts. Forexample, as an added incentive to open or maintain an account, many longdistance carriers offer reward programs, such as the True Rewards™program offered by AT&T, that provide subscribers with discounts andfree gifts. In addition, many long distance carriers offer additionalincentives to encourage a potential new customer to switch long distancecarriers. For example, many long distance companies will mail a check toa potential customer to encourage that customer to switch his or herlong distance carrier. If a potential customer cashes the check, theendorsement on the check also serves as an authorization to change thecustomer's long distance provider.

Many service providers attempt to lure new customers with various directmarketing promotions. Service providers, such as long distance carriersand credit card issuers, initially identify potential customers and thentypically send many different mail solicitations to each targetedcustomer. During 1996 alone, credit card companies mailed out more thantwo billion unsolicited offers for new credit cards to U.S. households,in addition to placing tens of millions of telemarketing phone calls, inan attempt to acquire cardholders.

While a number of service providers have been successful in obtainingvaluable new customers with such direct marketing approaches, it hasbeen found that the vast majority of customers ignore such promotions inview of the overwhelming number of promotions received and the failureof service providers to differentiate their service products and variousdirect marketing promotions. In fact, a direct-mail campaign is oftendeemed a success in the industry if the campaign achieves a “responserate” of just three percent (3%). In other words, a direct-mailmarketing campaign may be a success even when ninety-seven percent (97%)of mail pieces are inefficiently and wastefully discarded by recipients.Thus, in order to reach valuable new customers, service providersconstantly search for more efficient and effective ways to acquire newcustomers.

The problems and costs associated with current methods for acquiring newcustomers, however, are not limited to service providers. Even from thecustomer's point of view, conventional service provider acquisitiontechniques are unsatisfactory. Many customers are confused, discouragedand annoyed by the repeated attempts of service providers to solicit thecustomer's business through direct marketing efforts. Specifically,customers would benefit if they received an incentive to switch to a newservice provider at a time when the customer was more likely to switch.In fact, if the incentives associated with acquiring new customers wereproperly offered, customers would be more likely to accept such offers.

The billing statements of various businesses have been used as amechanism to advertise to account holders. Many merchants pay one ormore billing statement issuers for the ability to promote goods andservices in promotional materials that are sent with billing statements.For example, NewSub Services, Inc., of Stamford, Conn., is a merchantthat has advertised magazine subscriptions through attachments tobilling statements. In this manner, an account holder's billingstatement can serve as a medium for advertising to that account holder.Since the customer must theoretically open the billing statement to paythe amount due, the likelihood that the customer will see theadvertising message is greatly increased compared to traditional directmail promotions. In addition, the parent application to the presentapplication discloses an automated system that uses predeterminedcriteria to print an offer for one or more products to an account holderon a billing statement, and to allow the account holder to purchasethose offered products using the billing statement.

Billing-dependent businesses are also concerned with the inability tocollect full payment owed by account holders. Such uncollected payments,also called “uncollectable debt”, are considered a cost of doingbusiness and consequently decrease the profits of the billing-dependentbusinesses. Therefore, a reduction in uncollectable debt would beadvantageous.

As apparent from the above deficiencies with conventional customeracquisition methods, a need exists for a method and system that allows aservice provider to more efficiently and effectively acquire newcustomers. Yet another need exists for a system that allows abilling-dependent business to minimize their amount of uncollectabledebt.

SUMMARY

Generally, according to one aspect of the invention, a customeracquisition system is disclosed that allows an “offeror serviceprovider” to acquire new customers by making “acquisition offers” tocustomers through the billing statements of other businesses, referredto herein as “billing statement issuers.” The customer acquisitionsystem uses predetermined criteria to automatically include anacquisition offer on a billing statement or on associated promotionalmaterials, and allows the customer to accept the acquisition offer usingthe billing statement. Since each billing statement is likely to be readby the customer, the billing statement may be employed to makeacquisition offers to existing customers of the billing statementissuer. The customer acquisition system optionally ensures that thecustomer is not an existing customer of the offeror service providerbefore extending an acquisition offer.

The amount owed by the customer may determine whether the customerreceives an acquisition offer. For example, based on stored rules orother predefined criteria, the acquisition offers can be targeted tocustomers whose minimum monthly payment is less than, equal to, or evengreater than the per-acquisition budget of the offeror service provider.In a further variation, acquisition offers can be targeted to customersbased on geographic information, such as zip codes, or historical data,such as credit reports or purchase histories. In this manner, thecustomer acquisition system allows service providers to target localizedmarkets by using the customer databases of other geographically-orientedservice providers, such as utility companies. Thus, the presentinvention allows an offeror service provider to make an acquisitionoffer to a billing statement issuer's existing customers, such that theofferor service provider will agree to credit the customer's accountwith the billing statement issuer, provided that the billing statementissuer's customer becomes a customer of the offeror service provider.

In one embodiment, the customer may accept the acquisition offer, forexample, by circling or marking a corresponding “check box” on thebilling statement and returning the statement with the payment, if any,to the billing statement issuer. Upon receiving an indication that anacquisition offer was accepted, the offeror service provider is notifiedto transfer the appropriate funds to the billing statement issuer.

A more complete understanding of the present invention, as well asfurther features and advantages of the present invention, will beobtained by reference to the following detailed description anddrawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram illustrating a suitablecommunications network environment for interconnecting a customeracquisition system with one or more merchant terminals and one or moreservers associated with offeror service providers;

FIG. 2 is a schematic block diagram of the customer acquisition systemof FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a table illustrating the billing statement issuer customerdatabase of FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a table illustrating the offeror service provider rulesdatabase of FIG. 2;

FIG. 5 is a table illustrating the offer status database of FIG. 2;

FIG. 6 is a table illustrating the offeror service provider customerdatabase of FIG. 2;

FIGS. 7A and 7B, collectively, are a flow chart describing an exemplarybilling cycle process implemented by the customer acquisition system ofFIG. 2; and

FIG. 8 is an illustrative billing statement produced by the customeracquisition system of FIGS. 1 and 2.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In accordance with the present invention, billing statements are used byan offeror service provider to provide acquisition offers to customers.Many businesses provide their customers with billing statements thatinclude crucial information such as each charge within a period of time,a total amount due and a minimum payment amount. Thus, acquisitionoffers are very likely to be seen by customers.

Acquisition offers are also more likely to be considered and accepted bycustomers since customers can easily indicate acceptance on theirbilling statements. Furthermore, an accepted offer provides asignificant benefit: reduction or elimination of a debt shown on thebilling statement. Thus, the present invention can result in asignificant response rate to a customer acquisition campaign.

Acquisition offers are especially advantageous for people with limitedfunds. Such people frequently cannot repay all of their bills in a givenmonth or even make the minimum required payments. Consequently, theyprioritize their bills based on the value of the corresponding services.For example, if a customer with limited funds feels telephone service ismore important than cable television service, he will probably pay thetelephone bill rather than the cable bill. However, if the customer isprovided an acquisition offer in accordance with the present invention,he is likely to accept since the benefit (reduction or elimination of adebt) typically outweighs the cost (accepting a service, such asswitching to a new service provider).

FIG. 1 illustrates a customer acquisition system 100 associated with abilling statement issuer. The billing statement issuer is typically anentity that has an established relationship with a customer, and thatgenerates one or more billing statements detailing an amount owed by thecustomer to the billing statement issuer or to a third party. Thebilling statement issuer may be, for example, a credit card issuer, adepartment store, a public utility, a cable television provider, ahealth maintenance organization (HMO), a long distance carrier or anInternet Service Provider (ISP). According to a feature of the presentinvention, the customer acquisition system 100 is an automated systemthat uses predetermined criteria to include an acquisition offer on abilling statement or on associated promotional materials, and allows thecustomer to accept the acquisition offer using the billing statement.

Billing statements typically detail each charge over a period of time, atotal amount due, which is calculated by totaling the individualtransaction amounts, and a minimum payment amount. For example, creditcard issuers provide each of their account holders with a billingstatement that lists each transaction, such as purchases and payments,which have been applied against their credit card account. Eachtransaction listed on the statement (each “billing item”) specifies atransaction amount, such as a purchase price debited to the account or apayment credited to the account. Billing items may further comprisemerchant-specified text identifying the transaction, such as themerchant's name, address and telephone number. In addition, a billingstatement indicates the total amount due, which is calculated bytotaling the individual transaction amounts, and a minimum paymentamount.

The acquisition offers are made by the billing statement issuer to thecustomers on behalf of one or more offeror service providers. Theofferor service provider is an entity that wishes to acquire newcustomers. Typically, the offeror service provider is registered withthe billing statement issuer to make acquisition offers to the customersof the billing statement issuer. As used herein, an “acquisition offer”is an offer by the offeror service provider to pay an amount owed by thecustomer to the billing statement issuer as detailed in the billingstatement, or a portion thereof, provided the customer agrees to becomea customer of the offeror service provider. In one embodiment, theacquisition offer may require the customer to become a customer of theofferor service provider for a predefined minimum period of time or touse a certain minimum dollar amount of the service. The acquisitionoffers could be funded, for example, by the acquisition budgets of theofferor service providers. In this manner, the billing statement may beemployed to make acquisition offers to existing customers of the billingstatement issuer, because billing statements are almost certain to beread by the customers.

According to a further feature of the invention, discussed below, thecustomer acquisition system 100 optionally ensures that the customer isnot an existing customer of the offeror service provider beforeextending an acquisition offer. Thus, as shown in FIG. 1, the customeracquisition system 100 is in communication with servers 120, 121 and122, each associated with an offeror service provider that is registeredwith the billing statement issuer to make acquisition offers. Althoughthree servers are illustrated in FIG. 1, those skilled in the art willunderstand that any number of servers may be in communication withsystem 100. The customer acquisition system 100 can determine if acustomer is already a customer of the offeror service provider. Thecustomer acquisition system 100 communicates with the servers 120, 121and 122 through any of a number of known communication mediums, such asthrough the Public Switched Telephone Network (“PSTN”), an Internetconnection or a wireless communication medium. The customer acquisitionsystem 100 can (i) communicate in real-time with one or more of theserver(s) 120, 121 and 122 before making an acquisition offer todetermine if a customer is already an existing customer of theassociated offeror service provider(s) (ii) receive periodic updates ofthe customer lists of each offeror service provider from the servers120, 121 and 122; or (iii) a combination of the foregoing.

In addition, the amount owed by a particular customer may determinewhether the customer receives an acquisition offer. For example, basedon stored rules or other predefined criteria, the acquisition offerscould be targeted to customers whose minimum monthly payment is lessthan, equal to, or even greater than the per-acquisition budget of theofferor service provider. In a further variation, acquisition offers canbe targeted based on demographic information, such as zip codes, orhistorical data, such as credit reports or purchase histories. It isnoted that the billing statement issuer and the offeror service providerneed not be separate entities. For example, a company that provides longdistance service to a customer may include an acquisition offer in thecustomer's long distance billing statement to also serve as thecustomer's Internet Service Provider. Thus, it is also noted that insuch an embodiment, some or all of the functions of servers 120, 121 and122 may be performed by the customer acquisition system 100.

As shown in FIG. 1, the customer acquisition system 100 is also incommunication with one or more merchant terminals 110, 111 and 112,through any of a number of known communication mediums, such as throughthe Public Switched Telephone Network (“PSTN”), an Internet connectionor a wireless communication medium. In a retail embodiment, each of themerchant terminals 110, 111 and 112 is a data entry device acceptingdata generated by or on behalf of a merchant, such as a retail store.For example, the merchant terminals 110, 111 and 112 may bepoint-of-sale computers, telephones interfacing with a voice responseunit (VRU) or card authorization terminals. For a more detaileddiscussion of conventional retail transaction processing, see, forexample, the parent application to the present invention, incorporatedby reference herein. If the billing statement issuer is a serviceprovider, such as a public utility or a long distance carrier, and doesnot process retail transactions, one or more merchant terminals may beembodied as a meter that measures the customer's usage of the serviceprovided by the billing statement issuer.

Referring to FIG. 2, the customer acquisition system 100 includes acentral processing unit (CPU) 205 in communication with a data storagedevice 210, a read only memory (ROM) 220, a random access memory (RAM)230, a clock 240, a communications port 250, a printer 260 and an inputdevice 270. The CPU 205 can be in communication with the data storagedevice 210, the read only memory (ROM) 220, the random access memory(RAM) 230, the clock 240, the communications port 250 and the printer260, by means of a shared data bus or as shown in FIG. 2, dedicatedconnections. The input device 270 may be embodied, for example, as akeyboard, mouse, joystick or scanner. The communications port 250connects the customer acquisition system 100 to the merchant terminals110, 111 and 112 and the servers 120, 121 and 122 of the offeror serviceproviders. The communication port 250 may include multiple communicationchannels for simultaneous communication with more than one terminaland/or server. The communication port 250 can send and receive offer andaccount information from customers, offeror service providers and evencredit reporting agencies, such as TRW and Equifax. Thus, customers canreceive, review and pay their bills, and any associated acquisitionoffers, entirely online, for example, via electronic mail, without aprinted copy of the billing statement.

In one online embodiment, acquisition offers are included in electronicbilling statements sent to customers via electronic mail. A customer canthereafter accept an acquisition offer, for example, by sending a replyelectronic mail message to the billing statement issuer. In an alternateonline embodiment, billing statements can be posted on a web site orelectronic bulletin board, where a customer can review his or herbilling statement and accept acquisition offers. Thus, as used herein,the phrase “printed on a billing statement” includes acquisition offersprinted directly on billing statements or on promotional materialsassociated with the billing statement or acquisition offers included inbilling statements distributed in an electronic format, for example, bymeans of electronic mail, or posting on a web site or bulletin board.

The CPU 205 may be embodied as one or more processors. The centralprocessing unit (CPU) 205, data storage device 210, and the printer 260may each be (i) located entirely within a single computer or othercomputing device; (ii) connected to each other by a remote communicationmedium, such as a serial port cable, telephone line or radio frequencytransceiver; or (iii) a combination thereof. For example, the customeracquisition system 100 may comprise one or more computers which areconnected to a remote server computer for maintaining databases orprinting large numbers of billing statements.

As discussed further below in conjunction with FIGS. 3 through 6,respectively, the data storage device 210 includes a billing statementissuer customer database 300, an offeror service provider rules database400, an offer status database 500, and an offeror service providercustomer database 600. Generally, the billing statement issuer customerdatabase 300 stores information on each customer of the billingstatement issuer, including an identifier of each customer and summaryinformation of the transactions applied against each customer account.The offeror service provider rules database 400 preferably maintains theoffer rules for the one or more offeror service providers. Each offerrule defines acquisition offers to extend to customers of the billingstatement issuer. The offer status database 500 preferably records eachacquisition offer that is made by the customer acquisition system 100 onbehalf of offeror service providers. The offeror service providercustomer database 600 maintains a list of the customers of each offerorservice provider to ensure that an existing customer of the offerorservice provider is not extended an acquisition offer. As discussedabove, information contained in offeror service provider customerdatabase 600 may alternatively reside at servers 120, 121 and 122 (FIG.1).

The data storage device 210 and/or ROM 220 are operable to store one ormore programs which the CPU 205 is operable to retrieve, interpret andexecute. As shown in FIG. 2 and discussed further below in conjunctionwith FIGS. 7A and 7B, the data storage device 210 includes a billingcycle program 700. The billing cycle program 700 directs the CPU 205 tooperate in accordance with the present invention, and particularly inaccordance with the methods described in detail herein. Generally, thebilling cycle program 700 directs the CPU 205 to generate billingstatements that include acquisition offers for customers of the billingstatement issuer that are not existing customers of an associatedofferor service provider. The billing cycle program 700 also includesprogram elements that may be necessary, such as “device drivers” forallowing the processor to interface, for example, with the printer 260and other computer peripheral devices (not shown). Appropriate devicedrivers and other necessary program elements are known to those skilledin the art, and need not be described in detail herein.

Databases

As will be understood by those skilled in the art, the schematicillustrations and accompanying descriptions of the databases 300, 400,500, 600 presented herein are exemplary arrangements for storedrepresentations of information to illustrate the principles of theinvention. A number of other arrangements and informational content maybe employed, as would be apparent to a person of ordinary skill in theart.

As shown in FIG. 3, the billing statement issuer customer database 300typically includes a plurality of records, such as records 305, 310,315, 320 and 325, each associated with a different customer. For eachcustomer identified by name in field 330, the billing statement issuercustomer database 300 includes the customer's billing address in field335 and an account identifier in field 340. In addition, the billingstatement issuer customer database 300 includes the current outstandingbalance, minimum amount due and due date for each customer in fields345, 350 and 355, respectively. As discussed further below, theinformation stored in the billing statement issuer customer database 300is used to determine, for each customer, whether an acquisition offershould be extended to the customer on behalf of one or more of theofferor service providers.

Referring to FIG. 4, the offeror service provider rules database 400maintains a plurality of records, such as records 405, 410 and 415, eachassociated with a different acquisition offer. For each acquisitionoffer type, the offeror service provider rules database 400 includes anoffer type identifier in field 430 and an indication of thecorresponding offeror service provider in field 435. In addition, theofferor service provider rules database 400 indicates the criteria(rules or requirements) associated with the acquisition offer, and thecorresponding maximum offer amount in fields 440 and 445, respectively.As discussed further below, the information stored in the offerorservice provider rules database 400 is used to determine whether apotential customer meets the offeror-defined criteria necessary tooutput an acquisition offer to that customer. As shown in the offerorservice provider rules database 400, the maximum offer amount madeavailable by the offeror service providers can be less than, equal to,or even greater than the customer's amount due, at the discretion of theofferor service provider. An offer rule may also specify that themaximum offer amount is always provided. IT will be appreciated that amultitude of other offers and rules may be formulated depending on thebusiness goals of the offeror service provider.

Referring to FIG. 5, the offer status database 500 maintains a pluralityof records, such as records 505, 510, 515 and 520, each associated witha different acquisition offer that has been extended to customers of thebilling statement issuer. For each acquisition offer, the offer statusdatabase 500 indicates (i) an acquisition offer identifier (number) infield 530; (ii) the offeror service provider identifier in field 535;(iii) the associated customer account identifier in field 540; (iv) thestatus in field 545; (v) the amount of the acquisition offer in field550; (vi) the mailing date in field 555; and (vii) the expiration dateof the acquisition offer in field 560. In one embodiment, an offerexpiration date may be set earlier than the bill due date, in an effortto prompt earlier payment from customers accepting the acquisitionoffers.

The offeror service provider customer database 600, shown in FIG. 6,contains time-sensitive data. The exemplary data illustrated in FIG. 6corresponds to a date and time after the offers set forth in records505, 510, 515 and 520 (FIG. 5) have been accepted and subsequentlyprocessed by the customer acquisition system 100. As shown in FIG. 6,the offeror service provider customer database 600 maintains a pluralityof records, such as records 605, 610, 615 and 620, each associated witha different customer of each offeror service provider that is registeredto make acquisition offers. For each offeror service provider, theofferor service provider customer database 600 indicates a uniqueofferor service provider identifier in field 630; the correspondingcustomer name in field 635; and the customer's billing address andaccount identifier in fields 640 and 645, respectively. Thus, theinformation stored in the offeror service provider customer database 600can be used, among other things, to identify existing customers of anofferor service provider and ensure that those existing customers do notreceive acquisition offers. Of course, if the customer acquisitionsystem 100 makes inquiries in real-time to the offeror service providersat the time the billing statements are generated, the offeror serviceprovider customer database 600, or at least portions thereof, may not berequired or may reside at offeror service provider servers 120, 121 and122 (FIG. 1). The exemplary customer records 615 and 620 shown in FIG. 6correspond to new customers of the respective offeror service providersafter acquisition offers 510 and 515 (FIG. 5) have been accepted by therespective customers.

Processes

As discussed above, the customer acquisition system 100 may execute abilling cycle program 700, described by the flowchart in FIGS. 7A and7B, to generate billing statements that optionally include acquisitionoffers for customers. In one embodiment, the program 700 further assuresthat the customers receiving acquisition offers are not existingcustomers of the associated offeror service provider. As shown in FIG.7A, the billing cycle program 700 can be executed intermittently or atpredefined periods to generate billing statements, as required. Thedescription below makes reference to a single customer and a singleofferor service provider. Those skilled in the art will understand thatthe process may also be performed for a plurality of customers and/or aplurality of offeror service providers. The billing cycle program 700initially selects a first customer account record in the billingstatement issuer customer database 300 during step 710. The step 710 ofidentifying a customer account record may comprise a random selection ofa record or selecting the next record in a sequence, as when apredefined group of records are processed.

Thereafter, a test is performed during step 720 to determine if acorresponding record exists in the offeror service provider customerdatabase 600. The test performed during step 720 determines if thecustomer to be billed is already an existing customer of the offerorservice provider. The identifying information for determining if acorresponding record exists may be, for example, a customer name,billing address or other customer identifier. If it is determined duringstep 720 that a corresponding record exists in the offeror serviceprovider customer database 600, then the customer to be billed isalready an existing customer of the offeror service provider, andconventional billing processes are performed during step 730. If,however, it is determined during step 720 that a corresponding recorddoes not exist in the offeror service provider customer database 600,then the customer to be billed is not an existing customer of theofferor service provider, and a further test is performed during step740 to determine if the customer account record meets the conditions setforth in the offer rules of any record in the offeror service providerrules database 400 that is associated with the offeror service provider.The conditions set forth in the offer rules may be, for example,financial or geographic constraints on the applicability of a givenacquisition offer as described and illustrated above.

If it is determined during step 740 that the customer account recorddoes not meet the conditions set forth in the offer rules, then thecustomer is not eligible to receive any acquisition offers andconventional billing processes are performed during step 730. If,however, it is determined during step 740 that the customer accountrecord meets the conditions set forth in the offer rules, then thecustomer is eligible to receive an acquisition offer.

An acquisition offer is provided with the billing statement of aneligible potential new customer during step 750. The acquisition offerprovides that the offeror service provider will make a specified paymenton behalf of the customer to the billing statement issuer up to theofferor-defined maximum offer amount. In exchange, the customer agreesto become a customer of the offeror service provider. In one variation,the customer may be required to agree to become a customer of theofferor service provider for a predefined minimum period of time. Asdescribed above, numerous other acquisition offers may be formulated bythe offeror service provider, depending on the needs and goals of theofferor.

The billing cycle process 700 receives a signal during step 760indicating whether the customer has accepted the acquisition offer. Thecustomer may indicate acceptance of the acquisition offer on the billingstatement in many ways. For example, a check box may be printed on thestatement for each acquisition offer. As used herein, the term “checkbox” refers to any portion of the billing statement that may be alteredby the customer to indicate acceptance of a corresponding acquisitionoffer. To accept an acquisition offer, the customer may draw a checkmark, draw a circle, sign their name, punch a hole, remove a latexscratch-off coating or otherwise alter the corresponding check box. Thestatement is returned, typically accompanying any additionally-requiredpayment for the account. The returned statement is received andprocessed to determine whether any check box was altered.

The returned statement may be processed manually or by a machine. Forexample, predetermined locations of the billing statement correspondingto the check box locations may be optically scanned for indicia ofacceptance by input device 270. A signal indicative of whether theacquisition offer was accepted is thereby generated. Alternatively, thestatement may be read by a human operator, who in turn enters a signalindicative of whether the acquisition offer was accepted via inputdevice 270. The data entry terminal may be a computer or other devicethat generates signals in accordance with user input.

Rather than indicating acceptance of an acquisition offer on a returnedstatement, the customer may also indicate whether the acquisition offerwas accepted by transmitting signals via a telephone voice response unit(VRU) or other online interface. As is known in the art, voice responseunits (VRUs) allow an account holder to respond to queries and enterdata by calling a predetermined telephone number and pressing one ormore keys of a dual-tone multi-frequency (DTMF) keypad on his or hertelephone. In such an embodiment of the present invention, the billingstatement would be printed with a telephone number to call in order toindicate acceptance of one or more acquisition offers. Accordingly, thebilling statement may further be printed with one or more codes for theaccount holder to enter (e.g. a unique account holder identifier).

Once the billing statement issuer has determined that the acquisitionoffer was accepted, the billing statement issuer then transmits a signalto the offeror service provider during step 770 (FIG. 7B) indicatingthat the customer has accepted the acquisition offer and that theofferor service provider has a new customer. Thereafter, the billingstatement issuer receives a signal during step 780 from the offerorservice provider indicating the transfer of funds to the billingstatement issuer. The signal indicating the transfer of funds may be,for example, in the form of a confirmation of an electronic fundstransfer (EFT), a promise to transfer the funds at a future time, or thesignal may include an electronic currency. A description of differenttypes of electronic currency may be found in Daniel C. Lynch, “DigitalMoney, The New Era of Internet Commerce,” and Donald O'Mahoney et al,“Electronic Payment Systems.” Finally, the billing cycle process 700updates the amount due in the corresponding record of the billingstatement issuer customer database 300 during step 790 in accordancewith the received signal. Thereafter, the customer acquisition system100 may optionally update the corresponding record of the offer statusdatabase 500 to indicate that the offer has been “accepted” and mayupdate the corresponding customer's outstanding balance 345 in its ownbilling statement issuer customer database 300 in accordance with thereceived signal.

As previously indicated, FIG. 8 provides an illustrative billingstatement 800 in accordance with the present invention. The billingstatement 800 includes indicia 810 representing an acquisition offerthat encourages the corresponding customer of the billing statementissuer to become a customer of the offeror service provider, in thiscase America Online (AOL). In exchange, AOL will make the minimumpayment to the billing statement issuer on behalf of the customer. Thebilling statement 800 corresponds to customer record 310 of the billingstatement issuer customer database 300 (FIG. 3). In addition, theacquisition offer 810 corresponds to the acquisition offer set forth inrecord 515 of the offer status database 500 (FIG. 5). As also shown bythe record 515 of the offer status database 500 and record 615 of theofferor service provider customer database 600 (FIG. 6), the customer(Thomas Jones) accepted the acquisition offer 810, and became a customerof the offeror service provider (AOL).

It is to be understood that the embodiments and variations shown anddescribed herein are merely illustrative of the principles of thisinvention and that various modifications may be implemented by thoseskilled in the art without departing from the scope and spirit of theinvention.

What is claimed is:
 1. A system, comprising: a memory storinginformation about user accounts, wherein the information comprisestransaction history and an account identifier; and a processorconfigured for determining a bill due date for a preexisting financialobligation owed by a user to an entity; generating an offer to the userthat expires before the bill due date; providing the offer to the user,wherein the offer requires the user to spend a minimum dollar amountwith a different entity in exchange for the different entity paying anamount of the preexisting financial obligation owed by the user to theentity; and transmitting the offer electronically to the user.
 2. Thesystem of claim 1, wherein the offer is based on user purchase history.3. The system of claim 1, wherein the offer comprises an offer for theuser agreeing to become a new customer of a merchant.
 4. The system ofclaim 1, wherein the processor further accepts the offer electronicallythrough email.
 5. The system of claim 1, wherein the offer comprisescrediting a user account with a credit card issuer.
 6. The system ofclaim 1, wherein the offer comprises providing a monetary benefit to theuser having an account with an Internet Service Provider.
 7. The systemof claim 1, wherein the offer is based on an amount owed by the user. 8.The system of claim 1, wherein the offer comprises providing a monetarybenefit of reducing at least a portion of a payment obligation inexchange for the user becoming a new customer for the same entity inanother division.
 9. The system of claim 1, the offer is transmitted onan electronic billing statement.
 10. The system of claim 1, wherein theoffer comprises providing a user of a billing statement issuer a cashbonus or a credit larger than an amount due.
 11. A non-transitorymachine-readable medium comprising a plurality of machine-readableinstructions which when executed by one or more processors of a serverare adapted to cause the server to perform a method comprising:determining bill due date for a preexisting financial obligation owed bya user to an entity; generating an offer to the user that expires beforethe bill due date; providing the offer to the user, wherein the offerrequires the user to spend a minimum dollar amount with a differententity in exchange for the different entity paying an amount of thepreexisting financial obligation owed by the user to the entity; andtransmitting the offer electronically to the user.
 12. Thenon-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 11, wherein the offercomprises a second party agreeing to reduce an amount owned by the userto a first party in exchange for the user agreeing to become a customerof the second party.
 13. The non-transitory machine-readable medium ofclaim 11, wherein the offer is based, at least in part, on history dataof the user.
 14. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 13,wherein the history data comprises purchase history.
 15. Thenon-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 11, wherein the offer isprovided on a billing statement or an invoice.
 16. The non-transitorymachine-readable medium of claim 11, wherein the transmitting is byemail.
 17. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 11,wherein the transmitting is onto a web site.
 18. The non-transitorymachine-readable medium of claim 11, wherein the transmitting is onto abulletin board.
 19. A method, comprising: determining, electronically bya processor of a service provider, a bill due date for a preexistingfinancial obligation owed by a user to an entity; generating,electronically by the processor, an offer to the user that expiresbefore the bill due date; and providing, electronically by theprocessor, the offer to the user, wherein the offer requires the user tospend a minimum dollar amount with a different entity in exchange forthe different entity paying an amount of the preexisting financialobligation owed by the user to the entity.
 20. The system of claim 1,wherein the processor is further configured for receiving an indicationwhether the offer was accepted by the user.
 21. The non-transitorymachine-readable medium of claim 11, wherein the method furthercomprises receiving an indication whether the offer was accepted by theuser.
 22. The method of claim 19, further comprising receiving,electronically by the processor, an indication whether the offer wasaccepted by the user.